How fast should you walk?
Here at CABI, we are fortunate that our offices are situated in the countryside, among fields and just a few minutes away from the River Thames. So on a sunny spring day like today, there is a mass exodus at lunchtimes as the CABI staff drag themselves away from their computers to get some fresh…
If you go to Brazil tonight…
You will surely have the time of your life – as it is Carnival time! The Brazilian Carnival is usually associated with Rio de Janeiro and the Samba Schools parading along the Sambadrome, and is said to be the biggest street party in the world. However, it happens throughout Brazil in the streets and in…
Galapagos Islands need tourism, says Sir David Attenborough
As celebrated by fellow handpicked blogger Dave Hemming last week, this year sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of the 'Origin of Species. In the Galapagos Islands, which more than anywhere else have become associated with Darwin's development of the theory of…
Irreplaceable, Part II
Photo from World Wild Fund for Nature – Indonesian Programme I was slightly taken aback when first reading the 'Irreplaceable' blog from Handpicked author Katherine which started 2009 here on Handpicked. Naturally, I agree with the importance of conserving species such as bees on which so much human food depends – but was she…
Review of 2008
On behalf of all the authors of the blog, and CABI, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and thank all of our readers for the comments supplied throughout the year. I hope these will continue and flourish onwards during 2009. Sorry for the delay in this post, but its finally…
Making tourism sustainable – there is no plan B
The World Travel Market (WTM) is being held in London this week, and yesterday I was able to attend as editor of Leisuretourism.com. Two issues appear to be centre-stage at this years event. One is the impact of the economic downturn on the travel industry. The other is the need for tourism to be sustainable…
Beetle threat to ‘leaf peeping’ tourism
Looking out of the office window at this time of year, I’m fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the sight of trees turning all possible shades of red and orange. In parts of the USA, autumn foliage is big business for tourism, with ‘leaf peepers’ descending on New England every autumn to see forests…
World Tourism Day focuses on climate change
For those of us living in the UK, there hasn’t been much sign of global warming this year as we head into the autumn seemingly without ever having had a summer. Nevertheless, the overwhelming consensus is that climate change is a reality, and that we will all have to adapt accordingly. With tourism one of…
Why do some countries win more Olympic medals?
Looking at the medal table as the Beijing Olympics enter Day 12, it is clear that while the Olympics include more countries than the United Nations, a relatively small number still dominate the medals. While 76 countries have ‘medalled’ at the time of writing, only 16 of those are into double figures, and the two…
How do those Olympic swimmers do it?
With Michael Phelps well on his way to a record haul of gold medals in the Olympic pool, and much discussion in the media about the 12,000 calorie diet he eats in training (don’t try it at home, is the message from most writers), a timely addition to the Cab Abstracts database this week looks…